Musicscan: First of all to introduce yourself and blessthefall to our readers: If you would have to say what your band and especially the philosophy behind your band is all about – how would that description look like?

Blessthefall: Blessthefall ha always been about having a positive outlook even in the darkest situations. We like to show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that overcoming adversity is very possible.

Musicscan: Listening to To Those Left Behind makes one wonder about the intensity of the songs. It´s definitely more than just music. It´s also the atmosphere you create. Is the mentioned intensity something you are striving for by choice?

Blessthefall: Yes, we always strive to make our music impactful. Whether it's a metal song or a more pop song, either way we like to come across as energetic and intense. Our live performance is very Intense and we leave all our emotions onstage so our music should mirror that same idea.

Musicscan: Lyrically and musically blessthefall seems to stand for a certain kind of “emotional intelligence” that sometimes gets missed in nowadays music. Do you as a band ever think about your lyrics and music in this particular way?

Blessthefall: We definitely take our time when writing lyrics and music. I think both are equally important. If one is missing it makes the song not as special. So we scrutinize every lyric, every guitar riff, every drum hit etc. until we believe that it cannot get any better.

Musicscan: From your point of view: has it become an exception in these days that bands play the music they really want to play without focusing on what listeners -or the industry- expect? Are we really that far?

Blessthefall: Yes and no. I think there are bands in our scene that are trying to write radio hits and forget about the original fan base. I'm not saying that they shouldn't do that because it is their own careers. But I think it's more special when you write a song out of passion and believe in the song and it gets popular. We don't get played on the radio. We don't get magazine covers. But I'm proud of how far we have come without all of that hype. It shows that our music stands on its own.

Musicscan: The music played by blessthefall is above all personal, so you stay somehow outside “competition”. But what do you personally think about that topic?

Blessthefall: I think it's ok to be competitive sometimes. But for us our only competitor is ourselves. We compete with making each album better than the previous.

Musicscan: I got the impression that you definitely had the chance to experiment a lot more. To Those Left Behind partly offers different sounds and effects. Would you agree to that?

Blessthefall: I agree. I think we opened some new doors,musically, with Hollow Bodies that allowed us to continue that experimentation. We also wrote a lot more songs for this record, so we had a lot to choose from.

Musicscan: When you were writing the songs for your 5th album – did you have certain issues you specifically wanted to address? How did you go about writing your songs this? Has it been easier or harder to come up with new songs now that you are around for more than 10 years already?

Blessthefall: When we originally started writing lyrics for this record I wasn't too sure where I wanted to go and which topics to cover. But after sitting with the songs and experimenting with different styles of writing we came up with a general theme for the album. It's basically telling a story of love,loss,betrayal and becoming non-existent in the physical form. Trying to contact the ones you love and also trying to get revenge on the ones who betrayed you. We used real life issues and experiences to write the story and make it more relatable. It's something we've never done before.

Musicscan: Your songs cover a lot of bases musically: were you going for a more “inclusive approach” with growing over time and experience, or is it an intentional drive to you to make the songs as varied musically as possible?

Blessthefall: Yes we always try to write an album you can listen to from start to finish. So in that case you have to write songs that are all interesting and a little bit different from the next to keep the listener involved. Also we are influenced by lots of different genres of music such as pop punk,metal,r&b,pop etc. I think you can hear those influences on the record but at the same time we keep our own style.

Musicscan: Lastly: from being on the road a lot, what is one of the things you've come to realize? I'm sure driving to and from a venue almost every night leaves you ample time to sit and think about things. Unless, of course, you're too tired to do so. Do you think it's made you a stronger person at all? It's difficult to maintain friendships with people back home, I'm sure. What is the toughest thing you learned over time while being part of blessthefall?

Blessthefall: Yes it's definitely tough to be on the road so much. You lose some friendships and miss a lot of things while you're away. But it's the true lifetime friends that will always be around. The hardest part is being away from my wife and daughter. I want to be the best father I can be. Touring makes that a really tough challenge. Luckily my wife is also a touring musician and is understanding. I think later I will bring my daughter on the road with me. We all work hard to stay closely in touch with our loved ones.